Starting Over Again

Caroline loves school. We had a rough start, but she has been cheery and positive through it all.

When we registered for school, I requested that she have morning kindergarten so that I would only have to go tot the bus stop three times a day rather than four. I was told that morning classes were too full, so she needed to be placed in an afternoon class.

Two weeks into school, I was notified that because of low kindergarten enrollment, two teachers would be moved. One teacher would start teaching second grade and another would be moving to a different school to teach kindergarten. Caroline's class was being dissolved. The other class that was dissolved was a morning class. Apparently, all the classes, both morning and afternoon, had only 12 or 13 kids. The principal called to tell me which class Caroline would be in starting the third week of school. I asked if she could please be placed in morning, and he said he would see what he could do.

A week later I find out that all the classes, morning and afternoon, each have 18 students. I guess I just couldn't understand why, at registration, we were told morning classes were too full when they had so few children enrolled. I couldn't understand why my request to have Caroline moved to morning when they were already rearranging all the classes, was ignored even though there was still space in all the morning classes to have another student. (By the way, last year at this same school, the kinder classes each had about 30 students. The district now has a 20:1 policy for k-3, which I like.)

I called to talk to the principal about the situation but was only able to leave a message with the secretary. This was on a Friday. I didn't get a call back that day. After being mad and frustrated all weekend, I called again on Monday and was still only able to leave a message with the secretary. The principal finally called me at about 4:00 Monday night. (I happened to be at the bus stop, where I spent the majority of my time, when he called.) I complained and complained to him. He apologized and said It was all his fault as he had instructed the office staff to enroll kids in afternoon only until all the classes were even. (I guess when I registered there were 8 enrolled in each morning class while there were only two or three in the afternoon classes.) Anyway he also said when they rearranged classes, he kept all the spaces he had in morning because he was saving them for the children who would probably be enrolling in October. He was very sorry but he claimed he could do nothing about it now. I just needed to tough it out and keep dragging all my children to the bus stop 4 times a day. (It wouldn't be so bad if we actually lived close to the bus stop. Unfortunately the bus stop in not very close to my house.) I was very upset by the time we hung up. I felt like I had been lied to, ignored, and that the principal cared more about students that might enroll later than he did about meeting the needs of the students that he already had.

I was ready to pull my kids out. I started looking into charter schools. (In CA kids must be enrolled in some sort of school. If you do home school, you must fill out all kinds of paperwork and make your home a private school, and you need to have a bachelors degree to do it. I don't have one so that option was out. The other option for "home school" is to sign up with a charter school and get your curriculum and support from them.) I also started a big letter to send to the superintendent so he could know how bad the administration at this school was.

I guess the principal's conscience got to him because he called me again on Wednesday. He said he had spot for Caroline in a morning class. She could start the next day if we wanted it.

I didn't really know what to do. By this point I was more upset about the way we had been treated than about the actual class Caroline was in. She loved her class, her teacher was awesome, and she had already changed classes once. I went to the school and talked to the teachers. They both thought Caroline would do fine with the change because she is such and easy going, happy girl. The one teacher was very sad to have his "best student" taken from his class. The other teacher was excited to have her as she had helped out a lot in Caroline's first kinder class and knew she was a great student. (It sure helped me feel good to have my daughter be the sought after student!)

Well, Caroline, Keith and I decided to take the morning class. So far, Caroline loves her new class. I like the new buss arrangement. I now have a solid five hour block where I don't have to be at the bus stop. I think this will be especially nice when the new baby is born. Also when Jessie gets her cast off (hopefully next week) she and Caroline will be able to walk to the bus together in the morning. I feel a lot better about sending them off in twos than sending them alone.

I'm a little undecided on the letter to the superintendent. All the steam has cooled. I don't like what has happened but at least they did what they could to make it right.